Like Fire in the Bones: Listening for the Prophetic Word in Jeremiah (review)

Hebrew Studies 48 (2007) 375 Reviews In other parts of her study, Dille resorts to some unconventional interpretations and emendations in order to support her metaphor analyses. In chapter 5, in order to show that God is the father of Cyrus, she repoints the Masoretic text’s yÅnD;b ‘my sons’ as yˆnD;b ‘my son’ in Isa 45:11 (p. 120) without offering any significant text critical basis and despite the readings of the Targum, LXX, and Peshitta. For Isa 49:15a and 50:2a (chapters 6 and 7 respectively ), she proposes that the speaker is Zion, as opposed to God (the scholarly consensus), with little substantiation and without any explanations as to why the scholarly consensus is incorrect (pp. 141, 167). The reception of any approach to biblical metaphors will be based, in large part, upon how well that approach can be carefully balanced with other exegetical methods. Despite these minor criticisms, Dille’s study demonstrates how profitable , and indeed, necessary it is to study mixed metaphors. She has done a service to the study of biblical metaphors by directing future scholarship to new and rich areas for research. Kevin Chau University of Wisconsin-Madison Madison, WI 53706 kdchau@wisc.edu LIKE FIRE IN THE BONES: LISTENING FOR THE PROPHETIC WORD IN JEREMIAH. By Walter Brueggemann. Pp. xvi + 255. Minneapolis, Minn.: Augsburg Fortress, 2006. Cloth, $35.00. With detailed and insightful scholarship, complemented by a graceful and engaging style, Walter Brueggemann has given the scholarly community a concise study of the book and prophet Jeremiah. Written with passionate creativity, Brueggemann brings to light the contemporary and central issues surrounding the book as a whole while providing readers with a portrait of one of the Bible’s most complicated figures of prophetic literature. Distinct from other volumes written on Jeremiah, this work focuses on metaphors, interweaves various texts together for analysis, and places selected passages alongside one another and in dialogue with other biblical texts and passages to provide a rich conversation that contributes to a profound understanding of not only Jeremiah but also the entire prophetic tradition. Consisting of three parts and fifteen chapters, the volume opens with a focus on “The Word Spoken through the Prophet” (Part 1). Here Brueggemann outlines the critical problems involving the person of Jeremiah and the book of Jeremiah. Brueggemann views the book’s redactors as creative, artistic theologians whose focus on faith brings hope to the Hebrew Studies 48 (2007) 376 Reviews Israelite community in their times of dire crisis. Acknowledging scholarship ’s view that the text of Jeremiah has been deemed a difficult and complex book to read, Brueggemann isolates two of the book’s major themes: (1) an emphasis on a future beyond the events of 587 B.C.E., and (2) a preoccupation with emerging Judaism. Contributions made by other leading Jeremian scholars including Robert P. Carroll, William McKane, William L. Holladay, and Ronald E. Clements are noted and evaluated critically. Brueggemann discusses in detail the work of Leo Perdue that emphasizes creation themes in Jeremiah which has shaped significantly the theology of the book as a whole. Brueggemann also comments on recent significant steps taken in Jeremiah studies, noting the shifts from diachronic to synchronic readings, and from historical to rhetorical studies. He draws out the contributions that feminist undertakings have had on Jeremiah studies, and highlights two areas of interest: rhetoric and ideology, and how God is portrayed in the text. Brueggemann remains indebted to the work of Kathleen O’Connor, Pete Diamond, and Mark Smith who have advanced the current conversations. Finally, Brueggemann offers a sketch of Jeremiah from the text. For Brueggemann, Jeremiah is God’s man who delivers a message in subversive and poignant metaphors to shatter old worlds that give way to new ones. In Part 2, “Listening for the Prophetic Word in History,” Brueggemann explores prophetic speech and its relationship to the processes of public power, a false reality that cannot endure and that cannot drive out “human hurt and human hope” (p. 85). He argues against the popular scholarly consensus that the text is unreadable, and makes the claim that multiple endings of the book exist, and that...